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ERIC PREVEN’S NOTEBOOK - Gasoline lines in Florida this week stretched up to half a mile long, with chaotic scenes of people cutting in and causing disruptions. It’s reminiscent of the queue to speak at Los Angeles City Council meetings. No matter how prepared or eager one is, the new council president, Marqueece Harris-Dawson—essentially a continuation of Herb Wesson Jr.'s approach—uses a murky pick-and-choose system to decide who gets to speak.
What system, you ask?
Nobody knows as the city clerk, city attorney, and ITA office refuse to discuss it. This, in and of itself, is a shocking abnegation of the council’s main responsibility to their constituents. How does a total lack of accountability serve good governance?
Under Wesson’s leadership, the city at least acknowledged that they might not be able to hear from everyone, often packing the room with friendlies an hour before the meeting began, thereby faking out critics, who would arrive on time but too late to a packed hall.
Today, even with modern technology that tracks who signs up and when the city still finds a way to cherry-pick speakers.
It raises the fair question: does the City Council ever have to hear from certain people?
The only way to protect against a possible bad actor rigging the system against particularly critical members of the public is through full transparency. So far, the city has refused.
I’m not suggesting that Ted Ross, Jonathan Groat, or Holly Wolcott are individually bad actors—it would certainly be hard to prove without knowing more about the murky system—but if each of them knows what to do—nothing, wink wink—that’s called a conspiracy.
The City Council does not need additional embarrassing indictments.
As budget season approaches, with Bob Blumenfield (CD3) pushing Krekorian’s “one budget, one item, one-minute” mantra, it’s time to finally open the kimono on who is calling the shots.
The public has a right to be heard, and the city is prohibited from providing a distinct advantage or disadvantage to any member of the public. Rigging the system against a particular friend, foe, or frenemy is improper.
You can’t fake clarity!
Downtown Again:
It’s never easy to call out wrongdoing, especially when the battle pits you against craven attorneys feeding off a damaged individual. But sometimes, doing the right thing is more than just necessary—it’s unavoidable. It becomes a matter of personal responsibility, even when it feels like you're fighting uphill.
While I would have preferred to keep my attention focused on our county government and the city, if they weren’t conveniently on yet another recess, I found myself driving downtown. I wasn’t alone. My dear old ma came with me as we filed a notice of objection together, standing up against a system that thrives on manipulation and legal gamesmanship. The villains here? Lawyers—seemingly endless ranks of them—feeding off a troubled man, who’s in turn entangled with someone whose sociopathic tendencies only deepen the chaos.
It’s hard to fathom the lengths some people will go to in order to exploit weakness, to turn damage into an opportunity for profit. And that’s what makes speaking out so painful, but also so necessary. It’s not just about justice for my family; it’s about pulling back the curtain on the broader system that enables these manipulations, reminding everyone that complacency is exactly what allows this rot to spread.
There’s no glory in this fight. But there is value in it. Because if we don’t call out these wrongs, they’ll only multiply, feeding on the silence of good people who are too exhausted to push back.
The Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) meets at the County Hall of Administration.
Apparently, at the last meeting, Supervisor Lindsey Horvath called out the group for a shameful vote. The group includes, though we’re not sure who was in attendance:
- Donald Dear, Chair
- Gerard McCallum, 1st Vice-Chair
- Margaret Finlay, 2nd Vice-Chair
- John Lee (Staffer B)
- John Mirisch
- Kathryn Barger
- Lindsey Horvath
- Robert Lewis
- Vacant (San Fernando Valley)
Alternate Members:
- Angie Reyes English
- Anthony Bell
- Hilda Solis
- Imelda Padilla
- Micah Ali
- Wendy Celaya
Staff is very likely still working on the minutes, but Horvath barked on Twitter (X), “Shameful vote by LAFCO this morning. LAFCO is the regional body charged with managing land use through orderly growth, establishing logical boundaries, discouraging sprawl, and preserving open space & agricultural lands. I sit on the Commission as a member of the Board of Supervisors…
Nithya Raman, shown sucking up to the Board of Supervisors. Neither agency has done anything o protect the open space of Studio City
Smart Speaker: So why have you done nothing to protect the residents from rapacious development by an elite private academy precisely in our open space? The Weddington/Harvard-Westlake River Plan, and then less than a half mile away, the Studio City Recreation Center Prop K fiasco, an unwanted ginormous high school regulation-sized basketball court in a small park.
Anyway, the Commission voted down Horvath’s proposal to add a good-sized land acknowledgment to the front of every meeting. Something to ponder on Indigenous Peoples' Day.
Surprised that Staffer B, who is facing charges, is also on LAFCO in addition to Planning. I guess it’s useful to have vertical integration when it comes to land-use decisions… and Mr. Lee (and the lobbyists who spawned him) is an expert on installing license plate readers, a quasi-modern form of red-lining, across the region.
(Eric Preven is a longtime community activist and is a contributor to CityWatch.)
